Alison Sweeney ('The Biggest Loser')

Tomorrow night will see The Biggest Loser kicking off its tenth season with a brand-new theme of "paying it forward" as Jillian, Bob and Alison travel to seven cities across the country in a bid to find the new crop of contestants who will battle it out at the ranch to regain their health and a $250,000 prize. We caught up with Alison and executive producer Mark Koops as they gave reporters a glimpse at what to expect from the new season...

Why did you decide to let contestants compete for a spot on the ranch in the first episode?Mark: "Every season we're looking for a new way to start the show, and obviously being our tenth season, part [of it] was really driven by the fact that we wanted to go across the country and really sort of embrace the incredible turnout we get at these casting calls, and have Bob, Jillian and Ali really inspire the people who unfortunately don't necessarily get the golden ticket to come on the ranch, and encourage them to come out for one day and feel that they can get motivated and inspired."

How will the "pay it forward" theme work throughout the season?Alison: "We have a lot of different ways, some of them sort of more in theory than necessarily that we carry out in this show, but a little bit of both that we talked about in the first nine seasons of the show. The contestants come on the campus, they meet people, they do their weight loss but it's really insular in some ways, they don't think about the real world, they just focus on what they are trying to do, what they are trying to achieve. And then they go home and they meet people who are so inspired by them, and so this season, instead of following that same track, we kind of really talked about how America is going to respond to you and how people are going to relate to your story, and how important that is to take what you’ve learned here and pay it forward and share that knowledge with the people back home... [Fans] are going to respond to you because they are living that same story or they feel they relate to you and we see it happen so many times, so we really embraced that right from the get-go with this group, and really encouraged them to think about that, think beyond themselves and their own struggle to what America is facing."Mark: "Yes and just adding on to that, as we saw, once they've gone home, a number of them have been encouraged and motivated to not only make direct change to their close family and friends but sort of pay it forward in the community. We're beginning to see some of those seeds being sown now and look forward to revealing them as the season goes on."

Is there anything that happened this season that you are particularly excited about us getting to see?Mark: "One of the things we've done this season is play with the structure of the show, like moving the weigh-in forward where in episode one they are told it is no longer two of them or two teams below the yellow line, half of them fall below it and they have to compete in a challenge before going to the elimination room, so it made for incredibly competitive weigh-ins... Without sort of changing the fabric of the show, it freshened it up and made the weigh-ins competitive and with real stakes on the line." Alison: "And the challenges; in some ways they are really do or die for the contestants and their passion played a part in a really interesting way. Whether the scale was your friend or not, what can save you is your heart or commitment to it so we set up challenges that really played towards that and really made them show their commitment and remind them that being on campus is something they have to earn and work towards. There are no free rides and they have to work for it."Mark: "The only thing I'd add is that, as we've sort of gone on, we realized the obesity is often due to underlying issues. This season we really had some pretty serious issues that some of the contestants were facing, like prescription pill addiction, so I think [with] some of the sequences with Dr Huizenga in particular, we've really continued to build out the medical side of the show. I think it’s the growing strength of the show; the abilities to tackle a myriad of problems and how to get to the underlying psychological reason but also, in this case, a very real medical situation, [which] made for a very dramatic and strong storyline. But equally, it obviously was a very, very sensitive issue to deal with as addiction is for anyone."Alison: "And on a totally separate note we had the most amazing travel episode where we visit Camp Pendleton and visited the Marines. That and Australia are the two best trips we've ever taken with the show. It was seriously unbelievable and emotional and just so spectacular I can't even begin to describe how amazing the whole experience was for us - never mind how awesome it's going to look on TV. So, I can't wait for everyone to see that episode."

What impact has the show had on your own lives?Alison: "Well I'll just say that I never expected to be as emotional tied as I have become to them. It's such a heartfelt journey they go through and you know, I always talk to fans who talk about their favorite person or who you know, they are rooting for, and I feel that way about every single person I meet on the campus and you want them so badly to succeed; you want to help them get through such a difficult emotional time in their life. I have such a vested interest and such pride in every single person every week when they get up on the scale, I want to cheer. I felt the weight of that when I was pregnant with my own daughter and wanting to lose weight afterwards. I felt the responsibility of all those people whom I weighed in over the season and wanted to honor that by doing my part and getting back in shape and working hard for it, and living the message that we talk about... And not for nothing it's pretty nice to have Bob and Jillian staring at you every week because it is very inspiring and motivating to be like, 'No, no I think can make time for the gym!'"Mark: "All of us sort of become invested in the show... This is a show that I think there is a reason why the crew come back time after time. I think it really has become a show that means so much to so many people. My sister always gets mad at me when I say this but, I’m fortunate where weight hasn't really been an issue in my life, but it certainly was and has been at times for my sister. I know the burden and the stress it caused her growing up. So to be able to hopefully be a voice and make a difference for everybody else is very powerful and something I'm just very proud to be involved in." Alison: "You don't see a lot of TV shows where the camera guys are actually filming something and then crying actual tears from the other eye, it can be pretty powerful. I had one camera guy who has done this for all of the seasons and he's been around the block, he's done tons of documentaries and after the Dallas episode - which is what inspired the 5K - he came up to me and he said, 'This is what it’s all about'. He was never more proud of being in television than he was that day. I was so touched by that, and it was so great. We're pretty hardened to what we do and when something touches you like that you know you’re on the right track."

Obviously people want to get healthy on the ranch, but how influential do you think the prize money is?Alison: "I think the fact that it is a competition helps inspire people, because ultimately in the end you could do this at home by yourself and there is a reason that the contestants haven't had any luck trying to lose weight on their own at home. When they come to the ranch and they get all the advantages of being there and they have the opportunities presented there and the expertise, the fact that it is a competition and that someone goes home every week raises the stakes in a way that you cannot predict, and we talk about it at every challenge." Mark: "For some contestants it plays a greater or smaller role. For Abby, who came on obviously with the tragedy she had lived through, it was never about the money for her, it was purely about how do I get some control back in my life? So I think, different people are motivated by different forces and some come thinking it's for the money, some come thinking that they are coming just for their colleague or their partner and it's really not about them and they quickly learn actually they need to be there more than their partner. So, I think it’s a myriad of things but certainly at the end of the day they know only one person is walking away with that prize. The odds even having made the show are not great to win it. So, take advantage of every day you are there to learn what you can do really to sort of have the win for life."Alison: "For some, it's not even the money, it's their wanting to stay there as long as you can that is definitely a motivating factor."

Alison, you have a book coming out soon, The Mommy Diet. Did your experiences on The Biggest Loser act as a catalyst for your enthusiasm about health and fitness and prompt you to write it?"Obviously my experience with The Biggest Loser has colored the rest of my life… When you're pregnant it's sort of that time where you're gaining weight and you spend nine months thinking about this weight you're gaining and how you're going to deal with it after the baby is born. Along the way - because I was working on the show at the time that I was pregnant with my daughter - I just got so many new moms and pregnant moms asking me questions and I really realized there was sort of a hole in the marketplace for the idea... So many books that you'll read while you're pregnant all focus how to take care of your baby, which is obviously [important] but this is something important too; you need to take care of yourself. You taking care of yourself will make you a better mother. So that was sort of the premise of what got me started and thinking about writing this book and getting all that information down. I was so thrilled to get so much great advice from fitness experts and nutrition experts and beauty and fashion and everyone just wanted to help out and give new moms a great start. You don’t even need to be a new mom. You can be a mom of an older kid. You can be anyone and it'll have some good tips in it."